Motive can get off mark
Bought by the high-power combination of trainer Howard Johnson and owner Graham Wylie at the Newmarket Horses In Training Sale last October, Motive made his debut over hurdles when lining up at the Scottish track last month.
However, things did not go to plan that day, and despite making what looked like a winning move up the home straight, the four-year-old crashed out at the final flight.
That fall will hopefully have left no mark on the colt as he returns for today’s two-mile contest in preference to stablemate Credit, who was also entered at the five-day stage.
Johnson’s high-class Flat recruits always have to be given the utmost respect and Motive can find the winner’s enclosure here.
Goblin is taken to land a course-and-distance double in the Racing UK Channel 432 Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle.
The four-year-old is warming to his task over hurdles and following an average effort on his debut, went down by just a head after losing out in a battling finish with Prairie Sun at Catterick at the beginning of December.
Don Cantillon’s charge pulled eight-lengths clear of the eventual runner-up Quarry Island and should have this race at his mercy.
Buffy is one to follow in the concluding Watch Live On Racing UK Intermediate Open National Hunt Flat Race.
Bruce Mactaggart’s five-year-old showed plenty of promise when third to Blue Buster, who had found only the very smart Refinement too good previously, and Rogues Gallery on her debut here last month.
